Many razors for wet shaving on the market today have one or more razor blades (with many having three to six razor blades) within a razor cartridge which is operatively coupled to a handle, some razors being disposable and some razors having a reusable handle. Razor cartridges having multiple blades are described, for instance, in US Patent Publication No. 2005/0039337A1 published on Feb. 24, 2005, and one such razor cartridge has been commercialized as the five bladed Fusion™ Razor by The Gillette Company.
While multiple blades provide an improved close shave, generally some performance issues may still arise. Firstly, some discomfort may be realized by users during shaving. Secondly, shaving is still a relatively slow and inefficient process due to missed hairs and the difficulty in shaving problem areas such as the neck. Many shavers discern a substantial amount of missed hairs (e.g., hairs which are not cut at all or hairs that are not cut close to the skin or at the skin line) despite the bulk of hairs being cut.
In addition, it has been shown that some areas (e.g., neck, chin, and/or face) are particularly hard to shave. These areas generally have low-lying hairs that are often oriented in different directions. These low-lying hairs may be close, flat, or flush against the skin. In many instances, the user has to shave the same area repeatedly in attempting to cut hair that was either uncut or not cut close enough to the skin, resulting in increased skin irritation.
The discomfort aspect may be due to the increased number and sharpness of the blades and the cumulative force or loading on the skin, particularly in cartridges with three or more sharp blade edges.
Some prior art solutions which attempt to lessen the discomfort while maintaining safety and closeness provide, among other attributes, a reduced span of the blades from tip to tip, often referred to as the blade tip span. While such a reduction is generally known to provide better skin management by reducing the skin bulge between blades, it is also known to reduce the rinse-ability of hair clippings, skin particles, shaving cream, and/or other debris between the blades as the narrower spans decrease the size of the rinse-through gaps between the blades.
Rinse-through gaps, as generally known in the shaving arts, represent the shortest distance or narrowest point between two blades or between a blade and a fixed point such as the guard or the cap and typically, rinse-through gaps are shorter in length than the blade tip span. Advantageously, rinse-through gaps generally allow the user to place the razor cartridge under flowing water to permit water to enter one side of the rinse-through gap and push the hair clippings, etc. through to the other side of the gap.
One prior art reference, entitled Inter-Blade Guard and Method of Manufacturing Same, Ser. No. 11/150,744, filed on Jun. 10, 2005, attempts to improve comfort by reducing skin bulge while maintaining rinse-ability. It provides an inter-blade guard element disposed on the blade itself and provides a rinse-through gap immediately after the skin-engaging element across the length of the blade. One disadvantage of this prior art solution is that the inter-blade guard element is necessarily joined to a razor blade element and hence, not in and of itself an independent element in the razor cartridge. This in turn may limit the rinse-ability as it only provides a rinse-through gap or area between the inter-blade element and the blade immediately after, and not also before (e.g., on both sides of) the inter-blade element. It may also increase time and cost to manufacture such an inter-blade element onto the blades.
Another similar prior art solution discloses skin contacting portions connected to the blade and blade supports in a razor cartridge and hence, has similar disadvantages. For instance, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,951, entitled Safety Razors, issued on Jun. 12, 2001, and assigned to the Assignee hereof.
Another prior solution attempts to improve the efficiency of shaving by providing a bidirectional razor head with a centrally located lubricating strip. For instance, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,161,288, entitled Four Blade Bi-Directional Razor Structure with Flexible Guard System, issued on Dec. 19, 2000. This solution, however, does not provide improved shaving attributes or advantages for a conventional razor cartridge which typically provides all blades facing in only one direction.
Thus, while many prior art solutions attempt to improve comfort and efficiency, they do not adequately provide an answer to the problem of increasing the number of hairs cut and/or the ability to shave problem areas efficiently (e.g., neck, chin).
Thus, there is still a need to improve skin and hair management (e.g., comfort and efficiency) in razor cartridges while maintaining or improving shaving attributes such as closeness and rinse-ability.